HHS Releases New Career Pathways Online Catalog of Toolkits

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Family Assistance recently launched Career Pathways: Catalog of Toolkits, an online directory of free resources available for planning a Career Pathways initiative. Toolkits in this Catalog provide action steps for starting a Career Pathways initiative and help different sectors - education, workforce, human services, industry, and policy - learn to communicate with each other about resources and priorities. ETA's Career Pathways Toolkit is also featured on the new website.

About this Catalog

In April 2012, the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor released a joint letter endorsing the concept of “Career Pathways” as a promising approach to address the country’s challenge of how to prepare workers of all skill levels to participate fully in the country’s economic future. This challenge lies at the intersection of each department’s domains of expertise, and no solution can become fully functional without engaging each department’s constituency.

What are Career Pathways?

The Departments defined Career Pathways as a series of connected education and training strategies and support services that enable individuals to secure industry relevant certification and obtain employment within an occupational area and to advance to higher levels of future education and employment in that area. In the Career Pathways initiatives sponsored by the departments to date, we have seen roles for each department’s stakeholders. The education community takes a lead on providing classroom-based learning, and then partners with business and workforce development professionals to create workplace-based learning opportunities. These connections help businesses meet short-term staffing needs and grow a next generation of skilled employees. At the same time, the human services field supports workers in balancing their educational, professional, and family responsibilities while they make this investment in their future. What makes these activities a true Career Pathways initiative is the commitment to cross-agency partnerships that identifies the strengths and needs of each partner and uses that expertise to build the pathway.

How does this Catalog help us build Career Pathways?

That commitment to partnership is demonstrated at the Federal level with the development of this Catalog. The toolkits here were selected from the many available resources because they exhibit a common focus on helping different Career Pathways initiative stakeholders learn to communicate with one another. Some, such as the “Advancing Adults Into Community Colleges: Data Tools from Breaking Through” toolkit from Jobs For The Future and the National Council for Workforce Education, allow stakeholders to communicate their goals with metrics and data. Others, such as the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration’s “Competency Model Clearinghouse,” provide them with a way to create a visual representation of their priorities. But each promises to give Career Pathways stakeholders a deeper level of insight into the needs of their partners and how to create systemic change.

The direction that these materials give is always informed by practice, often from the experience of the major Career Pathways demonstration initiatives funded to date by the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor.

About Career Pathways

The Career Pathways Community of Practice helps workforce development leaders, practitioners, and policymakers expand state and local career pathways efforts currently underway or being planned. This CoP will enhance your knowledge, skills, and expertise in building effective career pathways systems.